Daniel Ellsberg, ‘Pentagon Papers’ Vietnam War whistleblower, dies at 92

“He did not suffer and was surrounded by his beloved family”, announced in a press release his wife and children. The American Daniel Ellsberg, who in 1971 disclosed confidential documents on the planning of the war in Vietnam, the “Pentagon Papers”, died Friday June 16 at the age of 92.

This whistleblower died of pancreatic cancer, which was diagnosed on February 17. Daniel Ellsberg, whose story inspired an American television movie in 2003 and a feature film by Steven Spielberg in 2017, had himself announced in March that he was suffering from incurable cancer and that he only had “three to six months to live”.

A 7,000-page report photocopied page by page

A former analyst for the State Department and the Rand Corporation agency linked to the Pentagon, Daniel Ellsberg had leaked 7,000 classified documents which revealed that several American governments had lied to the public about the Vietnam War. These documents revealed that, contrary to the assertions of various American officials, the war in Vietnam could not be won by the United States and that Washington had nevertheless played the card of military escalation.

Daniel Ellsberg had photocopied the report page by page with the help of a couple of friends. THE New York Times had begun publishing these documents, before the administration of Republican President Richard Nixon (1969-1974) obtained an injunction from a federal court to prevent them from doing so, on the grounds of national security. THE washington post had taken over, despite the risks of political, economic and legal reprisals.

These revelations had made it possible to change the opinion of Americans on this conflict of decolonization and the Cold War, from 1955 to 1975, a real trauma for the two countries with 58,000 American soldiers killed and some 3.8 million civilian deaths and soldiers on the Vietnamese side.